When: 13th May – 5th June 2016
Where: Hope Mill Theatre, Hope Mill, Ancoats, 113 Pollard Street, Manchester M4 7JA
£: Tickets cost from £14 to £20
What is it?
Classic musical Parade, will run for three and a half weeks at Manchester’s newest arts venue, Hope Mill Theatre. Parade will run from Friday 13th May to Sunday 5th June. The performance run is unique in that there will be Sunday evening performances throughout (at 6pm).
Tony Award-winning Musical Parade features religious intolerance, murder, political injustice and racial tension, and explores the endurance of love and hope against all the odds. It will feature a full cast of 15 actors and a nine-strong orchestra.
In 1913, Leo Frank, a Brooklyn-raised Jew living in Georgia, is put on trial for the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan, a factory worker under his employ. Already guilty in the eyes of everyone around him, a sensationalist publisher and a janitor’s false testimony seal Leo’s fate. His only defenders are a governor with a conscience and, eventually, his Southern wife who finds the strength and love to become his greatest champion.
Daring, innovative and bold, Parade is filled with soaring music and a heart-wrenching story, offering a moral lesson about the dangers of prejudice and ignorance that should not be forgotten.
The cast is led by Tom Lloyd as Leo Frank and Laura Harrison as Lucille Frank. Lloyd’s acting credits include Sell A Door’s Seussical in the West End, and he was nominated for the Best Male Performance in the Off West End Awards for Stiles and Drew’s production of Just So at the Tabard Theatre, London. Frank recently played Tiger Lily in Peter Pan for UK Productions, and is currently touring the UK with Blood Brothers.
Hope Mill Theatre opened in December 2015 and is located in the Grade II Listed Hope Mill. The 120-seat theatre is the brainchild of Joseph Houston and William Whelton who, after a career in theatre and living in London, were inspired by the highly regarded Off West End Theatres and wanted to replicate it by forming a creative hub in Manchester. The 5-storey mill is also home to writers, artists and designers.
More info: hopemilltheatre.co.uk and paradethemusical.co.uk